L’Orfeo
Favola in musica by Claudio Monteverdi
with La Capella Reial de Catalunya
Conducted by Jordi Savall
Stages by Gilbert Deflo
Directed by Brian Large
Singers: Zanasi, Figueras, Mingardo, Abete, Turk, Vargas, Bettini,
Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona
Recorded at Gran Teatre del Liceu
Barcelona, Spain
For Gran Teatre del Liceu
Produced by HANS PETRI
Directed by BRIAN LARGE
© Opus An Arte 2002
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Savall may be today’s grand guru of the “historically aware” musical production scene, and conducts here a recent, indeed sumptuous production of this masterwork from Barcelona’s Liceo opera house. The theatre was ravaged by a fire some years ago and has been recontructed magnificently. Savall makes use of his catalonian forces one frequently encounters in his recordings and they rise magnificently to the occasion, producing a scholarly and thoroughly convincing, from the philological perspective, rendering. His singers are a varied lot. Montserrat Figueras, Mrs Savall in real life, opens up the proceedings as a very convincing La Musica, if somewhat over-acted. The Orfeo, a singer I face up for the first time (Furio Zanasi), gives a beatifully vocalised Orfeo that is utterly wanting on the acting side, apparently being more concerned with an impeccable mastering of the work’s vocal intricacies than in projecting his character on stage in a convincing manner; the “possente spirto” passage is precious, though. The Euridice is given nepotically to Savall and Figueras’s young daughter Arianna, who is not very convincing as the unfortunate girl that prompts Orfeo’s rescue excursion into hell. She has a likeable voice but has still to develop her skills; in my view, there are in the market far better candidates for the rфle Savall might have chosen. The jewel in the crown is the Messenger, soprano Sara Mingardo, ravishingly poignant when bringing the news of Euridice’s death, her voice soaring all over the vast venue and superbly acted. The supporting rфles are well cast and sung, and the Act 1 dancers do their fare effectively. The production by flemish rйgisseur Gilbert Deflo is, as I said in the introductory sentences, luxurious and all-encompassing and resembles a similar one that Spanish TV (TVE) broadcast by satellite to the world in 2000 from Madrid’s Royal Theatre that I don’t recall if is also his; in Barcelona it surprises you from its very beginning as Savall’s enters from the back of the stalls, period-dressed and deliberately walking towards the pit to impetuously launch the proceedings, with musicians in charge of the famous opening fanfare distributed in various places in the hall and balconies.